Red Bull Disputes Old Ox Brewery Trademarked Logo/Name Because, Seriously, An Ox Is Just A Castrated Bull
from the redballs dept
You talk enough about the intersection of trademark and alcohol, and you end up discussing a whole lot of stupid. Between breweries going after breweries, Star Wars going after breweries, and even the whole damned MPAA going after breweries, and almost always for the silliest reasons, you have to wonder who could possibly come by and really knock the petty trademark thing out of the park, right?Oh, hi there, Red Bull! Thanks for coming along and turning trademark into a giant joke about testicles!
Red Bull has filed a complaint with the United States Patent and Trademark Office against a small brewery in Virginia called Old Ox Brewery for the using a male cow in its name and logo. “An ‘ox’ and a ‘bull’ both fall within the same class of ‘bovine’ animals and are virtually indistinguishable to most consumers. In addition, an ox is a castrated bull,” Red Bull said in the lawsuit. “Applicant’s Old Ox marks so much resemble Red Bull so as to cause confusion, mistake or deception among purchasers, users and the public, thereby damaging Red Bull.”I'll give Red Bull credit: it takes a giant set of balls to file a straight-faced trademark complaint that in part centers around your competitor's name's lack of cajones. Beyond that, this entire thing is monumentally stupid. First, any moron in a hurry is too moronic to know what makes an ox an ox, rather than a bull. After all, these are morons we're talking about. Morons with shit to do and no time to sit around and even learn how to spell "bovine" nevermind understand what the hell it means.
Oh, and the similarity of the logos? Pffffffft.
See the similarities in the logos? Because if you do, no you don't, and also shut up. This is pure, unnecessary, downright flabbergasting bullying on the part of Red Bull, which I had thought gives you wings, but apparently might actually give you IQ-point-sucking amoebas in your brain. Fortunately, Old Ox Brewery ain't buying this red bullshit and has instead posted its letter to Red Bull, in which they essentially kindly ask its adversary to eat a bag of castration-remnants.
“Basically you are holding us hostage with a list of demands that, if agreed to, would severely limit our ability to use our brand. Demands like, never use the color red, silver, or blue; never use red with any bovine term or image; and never produce soft drinks. Do you own the color red? What about fuchsia, scarlet, crimson, or mauve? Are you planting your flag in the color wheel and claiming those shades for Red Bull? Do you claim exclusive rights to all things bovine? Do you plan to herd all heifers, cows, yaks, buffalo, bison, and steer into your intellectual property corral, too?”Huh, turns out these ox have balls, after all...
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Filed Under: brewery, drinks, trademark
Companies: old ox brewery, red bull
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Oh, and the animal too.
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Wait! An ox is just a castrated bull?!?
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10 Heifers
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What Makes You Stupid?
Being a trademark lawyer?
Both?
(Pick one)
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Re:
Blue Ox?
Who wrote Paul Bunyan? Is it public domain yet? I think there might be yet another issue here.
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Never Drinking Red Bull Again
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Not a shred of similarity
I guess Red Bull's just full of bullshit and needs to let it out.
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False advertising.
(╯°Д°）╯︵/(.□ . )
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Re: Not a shred of similarity
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redbull is asking for a world of trouble
Schlitz Malt Liquor, for one, may feel a need to defend its mark. Or the Stroh company could really bring down the hammer with http://beerlabels-collection.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/DSC00724.134192121_large.JPG
Red Bull has an agreement with them already, right? Idiots.
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Re: Wait! An ox is just a castrated bull?!?
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They have previous
After a lot of mockery on social media they backed down.
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Tic Tac Toe
Who says IP isn't fun.
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Re: Re:
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Ox: castrated bull used for draft purposes.
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Re: Never Drinking Red Bull Again
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Why not these guys?
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1. They have far too little to do and therefore way too much time on their hands, and
2. They have way too much budget
Might also add a considerable lack of common sense, but then, we're talking about lawyers here.
.
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Re: Ox: castrated bull used for draft purposes.
... I see what you did there.
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Ox Station Road
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Does it give you wings?
This was a stupid lawsuit from someone who claimed he wasn't able to fly after drinking a Red Bull. )Hey, we've got a nice padded room over here so you won't hurt yourself.)
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Now I want to see Nestle nastygram Red Bull GmbH...
...No I don't. This kind of trademark defensiveness is really dickish and insecure. Good thing I don't like Red Bull, or taurine-based energy drinks generally, because now I find Red Bull as a company, a product and a concept even more annoying.
* I guess they're called Shockers now. I'm old.
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Red Bull
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Re: Does it give you wings?
That what red bull claimed their product did, did not work for him.
Personally the stuff has no effect on me, but I wouldn't sue. I would just find a product that worked.
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Water, Sucrose and Caffeine... yumm!
The only surprise here is that it took so long. You'd think their "wings" would have sped things up...
Considering that their first target is a product that is almost as NOT infringing on their trademark as is physically possible, I'd say that this is a test shot across the bow, to see how hard it would be to make cash demands of brands that actually bear some small resemblance to their over-priced kiddie-toxin-in-water product.
Any company that willingly poisons kids for money, is a perfect candidate for making even more money on the side through trademark extortion... in my opinion only, of course.
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Re: redbull is asking for a world of trouble
Do we know someone who could create this?
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Re:
This seems to be an attempt to "keep the register clean", which is a classic corporate IP strategy that is all about quantity and not quality.
A big pocket company will oppose, threaten to oppose, or send C&Ds to any and every new applicant using certain words, in hopes that most applicants will just withdraw. After a time this means there are fewer and fewer people using those words, thus making it easier for the big pocket company to stake out their claim around that word, and then using that as ammunition to go after yet more new applicants.
It becomes self fulfilling, as more the sophisticated applicants recognize the pattern and avoid those words, the less knowledgeable applicants fold quickly.
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Red Bullshit.
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To me, Red Bull's statements are very ridiculous. It is a pity that they try to interfere with small companies in every way and lead them to ridiculous disputes. But the sad thing is that otherwise the Old Ox Brewery company will just have to hire lawyers or mediators such as https://www.sinenskymediation.com/ to complete these processes
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